Oracle Park? Here’s what Giants fans will really call it

A crew from a sign company hangs a temporary banner in Willie Mays Plaza bearing the new name of the ballpark where the Giants play before the team announced that AT&T Park will be renamed Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif. on Thursday, Jan. 10 2019.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

If you hate the new name of the Giants’ ballpark, if you’re fed up with the concept of every sports venue being Your Corporate Name Here Field, blame the Los Angeles Lakers and the late Jerry Buss.

Brief history lesson: In 1988, Buss, who owned the Lakers and the Forum, sold arena naming rights to Great Western Bank. The Forum became the Great Western Forum.

That wasn’t the first. In 1972, the Buffalo Bills sold their stadium’s naming rights to a company that makes a coffee creamer, and it became Rich Stadium. When the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento in ’85, they played in a temporary building, ARCO Arena.

But for some reason, the Lakers’ name sellout was the tipping point that kicked off the naming-rights craze.

Much ridicule was directed at Buss for selling his sports soul for corporate cash. The new name was a cold-blooded comedown from the Fabulous Forum, which is what the arena had been called. Jack Kent Cooke, who built the Forum, was a bombastic fellow who ordered Lakers announcer Chick Hearn to use “Fabulous” in every mention of the arena. It was corny, but real.

I’m not sure Great Western Bank got its money’s worth. I lived in Los Angeles, and nobody ever called that arena by its corporate name.

Something similar is likely to occur with the Giants. Their fans are finding it hard to keep up with the parade of corporate sponsors, going from Pacific Bell Park to SBC Park to AT&T Park to Oracle Park. Plus, “Oracle” still means “Arena” to most Bay Area fans. Call it name-change fatigue. It will become simply “the Giants’ ballpark.”

Or maybe because the ballpark is still as cozy and cute as any, it will be called Adoracle.

The Warriors owe a debt of gratitude to Buss and the Lakers. Great Western Bank was swallowed up by another financial institution, which eventually morphed into Chase Bank, which is helping build the Warriors’ arena in San Francisco. So Chase Center will be the great-great-grandson of the Great Western Forum. Cha-ching.

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Deep thoughts, cheap shots & bon mots ...

There is concern that DeMarcus Cousins will slow down the Warriors’ fast break. True, Cousins won’t finish many breaks, but he will start a lot of them. History says a transition team doesn’t need five sprinters. The run-run Showtime Lakers featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who participated in zero fast breaks ... and five Lakers NBA championships.

I wonder why the Raiders didn’t fire Reggie McKenzie when they hired Jon Gruden. They needed someone to do the basic personnel paperwork until they hired a new general manager, but they didn’t need McKenzie to do that. Seems as if owner Mark Davis and Gruden didn’t want to appear to be drop-kicking McKenzie out the door, but the long delay made for silly drama and awkwardness, and it didn’t fool anybody.

All football coaches live in fear of their players feeling job security and losing their edge, but how silly is Swinney saying Trevor Lawrencewill have to compete for the starting quarterback job next season? Yeah, no.

The opportunity is gone for this season, but starting next season, the Knicks’ annual visit to the Bay Area should be declared a regional holiday. A chance for fans to give thanks that Stephen Curry was drafted by the Warriors and not by the team that desperately wanted him — and vice versa.

The Raiders to San Diego next season makes a lot of sense. Playing in Vegas in a second-rate Sam Boyd Stadium (capacity 40,000) would take the luster off the real move the following year. Davis hates the 49ers and Levi’s Stadium. He doesn’t want to play nice with Oakland and stay at the Coliseum another year. But in San Diego, Davis would be hailed as a hero and the Raiders would get great support.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones just bought himself a $250 million yacht. Now he needs a place to park it, so he’s planning to buy the Gulf of Mexico.

Knucklehead of the Week

Spouters of tired phrases

It’s a new year, a great time to clean out the sports garage, throw out those unwanted and unneeded phrases, such as:

Upon further review. “Further review” means a review of the review.

Zero tolerance. Almost always used by someone who, upon further review, has at least a tiny bit of tolerance for what he has zero tolerance.

This one’s on me. Spoken by a losing coach, and usually means, “This one’s on the idiot players who won’t listen to me.” When spoken in a bar, no problem.

Scott Ostler has been a sports columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle since 1991. He has covered five Olympics for The Chronicle, as well as one soccer World Cup and numerous World Series, Super Bowls and NBA Finals.

Though he started in sports and is there now, Scott took a couple of side trips into the real world for The Chronicle. For three years he wrote a daily around-town column, and for one year, while still in sports, he wrote a weekly humorous commentary column.

He has authored several books and written for many national publications. Scott has been voted California Sportswriter of the Year 13 times, including six times while at The Chronicle. He moved to the Bay Area from Southern California, where he worked for the Los Angeles Times, the National Sports Daily and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.